Under-Developed v Over-Developed?

The Problem is the Solution.

Whenever I read about India & China's economic boom it starts a chain-reaction of dark thoughts of eco-doom.

As a designer what can I do about it?
1> Create a highly desirable car that can be made entirely from papier-mache? (No wait, the Trabant already exists).
2> Commission a chinese factory to produce an exclusive range of furniture made entirely from shampoo bottles... ensuring it'll be copied and sold internally - thus providing a use for all our plastic (i.e. one that doesn't involve incineration)?
3> Get stray dog-meat back on the menu in Soho?

I could go on, but I think I've been patronising enough. Every dark thought has it's opposite.
When asked for his view on western civilization, Ghandi replied: "I think it would be a good idea." And as for China, I'd like to thank Al Gore Labs for reminding me of this little fact: "The Chinese symbol for 'crisis' is in fact two symbols - one for danger and the other for opportunity. That is how I see the challenge of halting climate change - locally, nationally and internationally there are opportunities to advance economic and social progress, but there are also huge dangers." Of course you could say that the US has the same attitude but if you through the Yin Yang concept into the mix - you've got yourself an exciting superpower!

Telegraph | News | Cameron pledges to cut car emissions

Well, it's nice to see such a bloo-paper go a bit green. The Telegraph cleared up the debacle over David Cameron's journey to work. Well, in his defence, you can't really deny that the kind of papers he carries are not something you want nicked when you're lying unconscious on the pavement after being knocked off your bike by some prick in a Lexus. Plus, the box used to carry his ministerial papers is said to be lead-lined. That kinda beats my lever-arch file. Full article...

Of course, being the Telegraph, they did have to go and spoil an otherwise fairly balanced story by ending on a negative. Apparently 40 scientists are saying that the rest of the ever-growing global consensus (scientific, political, cultural, religious, etc.) have got it wrong and global warming is just a natural phenomenon. Yes it is natural, but I'm pretty sure it's a reaction that is proportional to our emissions. Just because it's a natural phenomena, doesn't make it OK. Nature can be nasty!

Milk Gone Wild!

Unnaturally beautiful women, wet-t-shirts and the milky white stuff flowing all over your face. Watch the ad that would embarrass football fans here.

Recycling is Rewarding!

We're not buying nearly enough recycled goods, making recycling collections an expensive business. Despite the fact that Lewisham has a massive incinerator (generating electricity from our waste) you have to give the council credit for the amount of effort they're finally putting into recycling facilities. We can now order big green wheelie-bins and even stand the chance of winning £500 if you recycle. Unfortunately for me, I only recently realised that you actually had to register online to stand a chance of winning. ..
1. Make sure you're filling your green box / wheelie bin, 2. Fill out and submit the short form. Now then, what's this I hear about our recycling being shipped to China and Brazil?...

Who Are The Magical Recycling Pixies?
I can't help but wonder how all this mixed recycling gets sorted, cleaned and graded. I'm guessing that's why a lot of it is out-sourced to developing countries where employee's rights and environmental laws are a little more lax. The World Reuse, Repair and Recycling Association(US) is dedicated to "Fair Trade" standards for international recycling. Their view: "Exporters who mix unrepairable and toxic junk into loads of reuseable material are undermining charitable work, the environment, and sustainable employment."

Reduce: Bye Bye Bed

"Getting rid of my bed actually changed my life"
- Ben Weeks, Canada

Refresh & Reuse: train poster + 6yr old

Twin sisters, Ellen & Julia aim to reclaim the term 'designer' from empty styling. On their blog they attempt to apply design theory and practice to some basic problems of daily living. This example is of an innocent and well-intentioned act of train vandalism.
Design Your Life - Ad-aptive Reuse

Planet in a Petrie Dish

Billions and billions of self-organizing bacteria evolving in an environment poisoned with antibiotics... beautiful non-the-less
more...

A Death Row Blogger's Advice for Life

A Death Row Blogger's Advice for Life
Evans's blog is the leading edge of a strategy by death penalty opponents to use new technologies to make the same point to the wider public....

Everyday Goodness

Dutch Donny Cards make giving bite-sized donations easy.

Will saving American airline companies cost the earth?

The Guardian has discovered a draft of the 'Open Skies' treaty which includes a clause that makes imposing emmissions taxes on airlines even more diffcult than it already is.

Despite their significant and growing negative impact on the environment, the aviation industry is effectively subsidised as airlines are not required to pay tax on fuel. We need to start levying fees on every airline ticket, tailored according to the emissions of the flight, but the proposed treaty would make any such levy impossible without transatlantic agreement. The wording of the text is so broad that even future restrictions on night flights at Britain's airports could become difficult for the government to implement without US permission, because of the impact on incoming flights from America. Under the proposed deal, any American carrier would be allowed to operate flights between European cities.

"The European commission are much more concerned about it, much more in favour of measures to mitigate the impact, than the Americans are."
- airline executive

"If this goes through, we'll have sold out to America's airlines."
- Transport 2000

"This could be a recipe for almost the permanent stalling of any environmental advances on aviation."
- Liberal Democrats

Read more on Guardian Unlimited

Re-cycle

Apparently, 56% of Londoners use their doorstep recycling service every day... where do these 56% live exactly?

Condensing Boiler

On top of everything else, I fiddled with the old boiler... I didn't mean to, honest! Anyways, after 18 years I guess it's time it was replaced. Plus it makes sense to do it at the same time as getting the water-meter fitted. The governemnt's finally made condensing boilers mandatory and we managed to get a discount through our local EEAC (see www.est.co.uk). It was installed quite professionally except that the dude didn't bother to insulate the hot water pipes... another job for me then! The neighbours are complaining about the mist from the flue - claiming that it spoils the view from their kitchen window. Now I know how windfarm owners feel! Speaking of which, Ecotricity is proving that green doesn't necessarily mean nice. They've been targeting shareholders of rival renewable energy customers, providing us with a complimentary copy of The Ecologist - which just happens to have an article touting them as the greenest, keenest supplier of the lot. I thought their (Ecotricity's) remarks about Good Energy were pretty unjustified (and no that's not just because I happen to be a shareholder) but then again - a little healthy competition never did anyone any real harm.
Anyways, back to the water meter - I find it quite bizarre that water isn't usually metered in Britain (well at least in highly urbanised areas) so I decided to be pro-active and get one installed. It's small, free & usually pretty straightforward - although Thames Water needed a lot of chasing and everyone I spoke to tried to fob me off to someone else - OK, so it's only straightforward in theory, but at least we don't have to subsidise the watering of our neighbours' plants anymore!

Down with Imperialism!

Emma's starting to get a bit stressed about the progress of the new kitchen... she hasn't said anything... and I know she's carrying extra wait, but there's a lot of huffing and blinding going on. Being green (... or tight) is quite a bitch sometimes. I'm trying to re-use as much plastic and copper piping as possible - hence lots of careful cutting, working out, re-cutting, trips back&-forth to get different connectors/adaptors/stoppers/valves etc etc.

It seems that 40mm pipe can sometimes be 38mm pipe and sometimes 42mm ..but seldom does it actually measure 40mm. It all depends where you buy your pipe from. And if you happen to stumble upon www.diy-not.com looking for advice, you'll find lots of hardcore DIYers swapping hate stories about how and why a certain "hardware" store is not "the real deal" at all. Hmmm - very sinister - then again, they're quite a helpful bunch - replying to my somewhat bashful queries about basic plumbing & electrical techniques that any self-respecting man about the house should already know.

Anyways, I started this post to have a bitch about stupid imperial measurements... I'm sorry Victor papanek, I know it's all very romantic to measure everything based on whether or not you can carry it from one village to another... or whether you can stick your thumb in it or whatever - but Victor, how's that going to help me when all I want to do is stick two bits of plastic pipe together? I thought that the UK government started the official switch over to metric back in the 70's, but the other day I found out that it was more like 100 years ago. FK me, hardcore plumbers are old!

Kitchendraw

Ric gave me some amazing CAD software which is apparently used by the pros. I've gotten quite carried away with all the different variations. Thank God I've limited myself to re-using as much of the existing cabinets as possible, otherwise I'd definitely go mad. The full 3D rendering and virtual tours are quite addictive... but I've almost finalised the design. I say almost, apparently I was just using a free trial that has now expired - the only way to recover my carefully constructed plans is by leasing the software. Now, don't get me wrong - the concept of leasing is brilliant: always up-to-date, no need for physical packaging, much harder to crack etc. But why do they have to make it SO expensive? Once again... thanks a lot Ric!

I'm Officially Nesting

Well, Beemer's well and truly on his way and and I've got to convert the existing kitchen into a nursery-cum-study ... a bit paradoxical I know ... we so need a better name.

I've been a bit of a bin-diver, scouring skips for that perfect piece of furniture / collection of wood to make an underpants-drawer / filing cabinet. I reckon the five estate agent sign posts I've nicked will be perfect for the frame of the built-in wardrobe... but I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. First off I've gotta build us a sleek, chic Milano style kitchen on a student's budget and the ethics of swampy.

Hmmm....

Not Quite Barefoot & Pregnant...

Well, at least I got it done in time for Christmas ... I think a new kitchen qualifies as a gift for a lady-wife. Plus, Lucian's still young enough to bathe in the sink - saving us a lot of bathwater and back-ache.

Checkout the CNC routed sink-covers for extra work-surface (my bread-board fits there too). Plus Italian/Portugese style over-head dish-drainer...

Plus Klein-MTB handlebars make a high-performance towel-rail. But wait, that's not all, hanging off the rail is a draw-string bag that came free with a pair of trainers - perfect for storing plastic bags.